I need to have words with marathon makers. I get it, November is a great time to run. Every one is winding down for the end of the year, the sun is shining (but not hot), layers aren’t needed, and the rain has left.

But, you know when is not a good time to run? All the months leading up to November.

To put it bluntly, running in winter sucks. I find it a challenge enough when the sun is shining to put my trainers on and pound the pavement, so when I step outside and its grey, I can see my breath and my fingers instantly feel like they are going to fall off – I doesn’t get me excited to run. Or excited to move at all.

This has resulted in a complete disregard for all my amazing training and embracing the couch (and my Masterchef Australia front seat). So, when I went for a run the other day, and decided to do a simple 7k – I knew it wouldn’t be easy.

But I didn’t predict quite how hard it would be. Or that I would ultimately fail.

Its time to be honest, I went into this thing all guns blazing. I was running one long run a week (increasing by one K every couple of weeks) and between two – three shorter runs. In the last couple of months, I have done three long runs (damn) and maybe one other (usually really short) run a week. Fuck.

So, its understandable I’m swiftly loosing my edge. Its still very demoralising to have to stop and walk in the middle of a run you know your body can do. I swear my mind is the part of me most battling my training in winter (my mind and my freezing cold exposed calves). That pesky sentence, “you can’t do that”, is finding its way back into my head, and its beating me.

This post sounds very depressing (and a little whiny), and I guess that is pretty much how I feel when it comes to my running right now. But hiding under all those layers of let down I think there is still a bit of residual determination. I’ve taken quite a few steps backwards recently, and because of that, there are two options; I can give up – turn around walk home and look back on what I did manage to achieve. Or I can battle through. I think you know what I am going to choose.

Yes, it is killing me that I’m going to have to work my way through a lot of the challenges I’ve already faced, and I’m definitely going to get less of a thrill this time round with goals I’ve reached and roads I’ve traveled before. But hopefully the knowledge I’ve gained, and the experience of letting those negative voices in my head win, will remind me that getting out there (even when Masterchef is on), will be worth it in the long run (ba dum dum chh).

I may also need to invest in some warmish sports leggings and the dreaded running gloves, to avoid loosing a limb. Or three

THE EDITOR

Isobel is a 25 year old stylist, writer and blogger living in London. With a graphic design degree, a masterful eye for online bargains and a knack for whipping up a primal storm in the kitchen, she adds editing this online magazine to her list of accolades.